


I love you now that you're six feet underground

by ExultedShores



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Character Death, Corvo is just really fucked up, Gen, High Chaos (Dishonored), High Chaos Corvo Attano, Insanity, Lots of Murder, Romanticised death, Seriously almost everyone gets offed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 17:09:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13768683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExultedShores/pseuds/ExultedShores
Summary: There is nothing more beautiful in this world than watching the life leave someone’s eyes.High Chaos Corvo, who firmly believes death is the only true salvation, climbs Burrows Lighthouse to save his daughter.





	I love you now that you're six feet underground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cerasinus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerasinus/gifts).



> So today is my dear friend [Cerasinus'](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerasinus/pseuds/Cerasinus) brithday, and this is my modest gift to him. He has ~~an unhealthy obsession with~~ a normal amount of interest in the concept of High Chaos Corvo, so I, the strongly opinionated Low Chaos enthousiast I am, wanted to indulge him.

There is nothing more beautiful in this world than watching the life leave someone’s eyes.

Corvo follows the transition whenever he can, each occurrence as marvellous as the last, yet all distinctly different. He recalls clearly the guard whose eyes glazed over in a second, the exact moment the Void claimed his soul come and gone in a flash. He remembers the courtesan whose eyes flickered, the light waning only to briefly return as she struggled against the pull of death. He will never forget the noble whose eyes showed such relief, whose gaze seemed to thank him as he slowly faded away.

Stunning, each and every one.

He has saved so many souls, allowed so many to escape this heartless existence. Yet there are more out there still, waiting for their salvation, waiting to be released. He will get to them, as soon as he is able. But Emily is his priority now.

Kingsparrow Island is purging itself, hardly needing his assistance at all. Pendleton’s existence seeps from him like sand passing through an hourglass, the unknown that death brings scaring him into clinging to life for as long as he can. Corvo stays with him to watch the light leave, as he always does. Martin doesn’t give him that chance, doesn’t even leave Corvo an eye to look into, choosing instead to enter the Void quickly, on his own accord, by placing the barrel of his own pistol under his chin and pulling the trigger.

They deserve this. They tried to help him, tried to save him, but Samuel didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. The poison failed to set him free, but that’s alright. Corvo knows he still has work to do, people to rescue from this miserable world. It’s why the Outsider chose him. And he will do his job, and do it gladly, until another is chosen to take his place. Just like he took the place of the Outsider’s last Marked.

Corvo didn’t know what to do with Daud, at first. The others who’d wronged him, who made him wish for the Void despite the work yet to be done, he left them alive. Kept them in this world, made their existence a living hell. Campbell branded, the Pendleton twins rendered mute and forced to work in their own mine, Boyle imprisoned by her stalker, Burrows left to rot in Coldridge. They don't deserve liberation. They deserve to suffer.

But when it came to Daud, Corvo did not know whether to save or condemn him. He’d helped so many, as a champion of the Outsider. Rescued Jessamine from herself, before Corvo even realised how much of a gift death truly is. But then he stopped, after Jessamine. Outright refused to continue his work, to keep bringing souls salvation. Corvo considered letting him live, perhaps attempt to bring him back on the right path, just as he considered killing him, as a reward for his years of service. It was only when they fought their duel, a duel that no two others could fight, that Corvo realised what had to be done.

Those Marked by the Outsider have an expiration date, Corvo has long since learned. The power they receive is great, but so is the cost. If left alive for too long, they go insane. Like Granny Rags. Insane, and useless. Daud’s date was coming up, or perhaps it had already passed. And Corvo knew that when it was his time, he’d want someone to end it before he went mad. Before he stopped saving others, he would want someone to save him.

So he slit Daud’s throat.

It was the one time he did not stop to watch the light fade.

Sooner or later, he knows, he will share Daud’s fate. But not yet, not today. So Corvo presses on, making his way up Burrows Lighthouse to find his daughter. His Empress.

He finds her at the very top, at the edge of a bridge to nowhere, held close by Admiral Havelock. He means to jump, to send both himself and Emily into the Void – and it’s the moment Havelock takes a step back when the panic hits Corvo like a batting ram. He can’t let this happen, cannot let Emily fall to her death here. He has to save her!

He slows time around him without a second thought, the use of supernatural abilities having become as easy as holding a sword, and he sprints for them as they fall back. Corvo grabs Emily, pulling her away from Havelock, and as time resumes its normal flow, he can do nothing but watch as the Admiral plummets into the unruly sea below. He wouldn’t have been able to hold the other man’s weight, couldn’t have done anything to stop his fall. But it’s better like this. Death by sea. Havelock wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Emily shakes in his arms, from both cold and fear. “I always knew you would come,” she tells him breathlessly, and there is indeed not a trace of doubt in her brown eyes. The eyes she inherited from him. “You’re my hero.”

He _is_ a hero. He’s done well, he knows. Corvo takes off his mask so she can see his smile. “Thank you, Emily.”

“The others are all dead, aren’t they?” she asks, and he nods. “That’s alright. I was going to have them killed anyway.”

His beautiful, clever little girl. She knows. She understands. And he is so proud.

“It’s going to be alright now,” he says softly, soothingly, as he holds her small hands in one of his. “After this, nothing will ever hurt you again.”

And then he stabs his sword through her abdomen, angling upward. The same way Daud’s blade pierced Jessamine.

A quick death, almost painless. But long enough for Corvo to look into her eyes, so similar to his own, and watch the light fade away. It’s selfish, he knows, to subject her to this rather than letting her fall off the lighthouse. But he has to see. He has to be the one to save her.

Emily coughs wetly, droplets of blood splattering against his grimy coat, but Corvo can only look at her eyes, dimming more and more with every passing second. _Gorgeous_.

He pulls his sword out of her body and supports her as she falls. “I love you, Emily.”

She struggles to form words with her dying breaths, her bloodied lips moving soundlessly, but Corvo knows she means to tell him she loves him too. How could she not? He’s her father, her protector, her saviour. He’s done well by her.

There’s a last shuddering exhale before she stills, her eyes glazing over completely, and Corvo smiles fondly at her corpse. “Goodbye, my daughter.”

He sits there for a long time, at the edge of the walkway, the freezing rain bearing down on him as he holds the small body close, feeling the warmth leaving her. It’s cathartic.

Only when she’s well and truly cold does he rise, carrying her back inside. He lays her down on the long table displaying Dunwall’s map and folds her hands together over her chest. It’s a fitting pyre for an Empress.

Corvo douses the body with whale oil, just like he did Jessamine’s Heart. There can be no connection left to this world if he wants her soul to be truly free.

The lighthouse burns brightly, the many tanks of oil in its bowels keeping the fire alive despite the heavy rainfall. Corvo watches it from the safety of the _Amaranth_ , Samuel’s remains long since disposed into the icy waters below.

There’s a finality to it, watching the flames consume the island. Emily was the last person tying him to his old ways, his shameful life of keeping people trapped in this world, out of the Void. Royal Protector they called him, even though he deserved the title of Torturer more than Morris Sullivan ever did. How blindsided he was.

But he’s atoned for his sins, saved all the people he knew and cared for. And now, he’s free.

His work isn’t done, though. There are still too many innocents out there, waiting for release. Waiting for the Masked Felon. Waiting for him. For he knows that death is not the last sleep, but the final awakening.

So he replaces his mask, hiding his content smile, and sets sail for the mainland.

The Outsider won’t be bored for a good long while.

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this fic and the inspiration to write it come from The Difference's cover of Jeffree Star's song Get Away With Murder.
> 
> Happy birthday J, hope this fic about death and despair makes you happy <3


End file.
